Fear and Enlightenment (Continued)

Before the truth can set you free you first need to recognize which lie is holding you back.

(Unknown)

01/28/2011

In Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist", the little boy saw an omen that the oasis that they were staying at would be attacked. When he told the chief about his revelation he was calmly told that they would prepare for the attack but if nobody came tomorrow he would be killed. I have read a similar storyline elsewhere and wonder if this is the symbolic death of the ego that is required to move to the next spiritual level. In my work with financial markets I have experienced similar moments when the professional stage is set in a way that suddenly you feel the imaginary gun to your head and somebody says "Yes or No". Personally, I hate the feeling of fear and wonder does life and spiritual advancement really have to be so theatrical?

I posed this question four years ago, and given that no one ever responded to it, I may as well answer it myself. Way too often we feel spiritually superior with little knowledge that more often than not we are not even aware of all the inner lies, biases and conflicts. So sometimes we need to be thrown into the eye of the storm to be finally ready to question everything we think we are about. In hindsight, these soul searching moments are all theatrical, so you might as well relax when the nasty stuff hits the fan. Before you know it, everything returns to normal while you have safely advanced to the next spiritual level.